Pasadena Weekly

January17, 1997
By Bliss

The Red Elvises: Surfing’ Siberian-Style

How far is it from Austin to Russia? That’e what I was asking myself as I listened to Zhenya Kolykhanov (don’t ask me to pronounce it) of the Red Elvises, one of the hottest, wackiest bands around. The Russian native’s three year stint in Austin shows, with his dead-on rockabilly cat looks and sound, and guitar licks and slides drenched in Texas rock and blues. He’s driving musical engine of the four-piece band, which is locket tight into a bootie-shakin’ surf-rockabilly groove. When they played Rusty’s Surf Ranch last week, they had folks happily dancing in the crowded aisles between tables.

But what makes the Red Elvises stand out from the packed rockabilly crowd in their goofball humor. It’s a shame most club sound system will swallow their lyrics, because most of them are hilarious. Irreverent songs like "Ballad of Elvis and Precilla" and "Tango" poke fun at cultural crazes, while the gender-spoofing "Harriet" is a sing-alone crowd pleaser: "She looked Japanese/But she was from France/ She took of her shoes/And we started to dance/ Harriet, oh we could be a perfect duet/ Harriet this romance I will never forget/ My honey pie/ My chocolate cake/ My well-done steak/ We danced all night long / and she called me my dear’/ Then we burped real loud and finished my beer/ I looked in her eyes/ And then realized (whoops)/ She looked really cute/ But she was a guy".

Band members Igor Yuzov and Oleg Bernov worked together for five years in Limpopo, a "crazy Russian folk ‘n roll band" best remembered for a Kit-Kat commercial it landed after winning a competition on TV’s cheesy "Star Search" in 1993. Last year Igor and Oleg decided Russian folk music was,um, well, nice, but they wanted to sing in English. Hey, it’s America, right? so, what better rock ’n roll icon to follow then the king of kitsch himself? Thus Red Elvises were born.

But Elvish wasn’t their hero. According to Oleg, at first he just didn’t get Elvis: "I hated Elvis back in Russia. I couldn’t understand, y’know, back in Russia, what I saw on TV, they would show late Elvis-the fat guy. And it sounded very much like Russian pop music at that time, and I thought, ‘What is the big deal ?’...Then I saw earlier videotapes and saw the guy had so much power and so much charisma in his shows. He was a real performer."

On that subject-charisma and performance- Oleg could give lessons. Onstage, he comes across a character Steve Martin might have created in his wilder days. Picture a guy with almost offensively bright, Ronald McDonnel-red hair, spastic eyebrows, Gumby legs and a wicked grin, wearing a white tux with red lapels and tie, leaping around the stage (and into the audience) with his funny-looking thing called a giant balalaika bass-a huge triangular-shaped instrument that’as tall as he is. It defies the law of physics.

Oleg sings on the band’s more outrageously comical numbers while doing his little Russian dance shtick, but most of the lead vocals are handled by Igor, a handsome guy who’s got the cool Elvis pelvis twist and curled lip thang down. Igor also writes most of the band’s songs. Both guys work female audience members shamelessly. Says Oleg, "Now we have more pretty girls in the crowds, which we like. There’s also, all of the sudden there’d an elderly lady or an old guy start dancing. We must be doing something right [when] a five year-old kid start dancing and a 75-year-old grandma start dancing. And of course everything in between."

So what are the band’s future plans?

"We’re gonna do a future movie," Oleg promises. "We’re gonna do a TV show. And we’re gonna do lots of records. And whatever is fun. Those seem like fun." OK, that’s cool, but, uh...seriously?

Forget it. There’s nothing serious about these guys. Not. A. Thing. Just whacked-out fun. With typical modesty, Oleg says, "the main reason the Red Elvises came all the way here from Siberia, was to reinvent rock and roll. It’s dying out. Everything you see so violent or unhappy. We are here to make people happy, to entertain. That’s the unlimited goal. Just to be good entertainers.